1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a touch panel, and more particularly, to a touch panel with a novel electrode structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Currently, in the market of various kinds of consumer electronic products, touch panels have been widely applied to portable electronic devices such as personal digital assistants (PDA), mobile phones, notebooks, and even in personal computers and digital home appliances for serving as the interface of an information communication tool between the users and the electronic devices. When using the touch panel, the user can directly operate and send out a command through the objects displayed on the panel, thus providing a more user-friendly interface. With the pursuit of electronic products of compact size in the market, touch panel has gradually replaced conventional input apparatuses such as operation buttons, keyboards, and mouse in order to save space. Accordingly, the display device with a touch panel has become the key component of various electronic products.
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a conventional touch panel. As shown in FIG. 1, the touch function of a conventional touch panel 100 is mainly provided by a plurality of horizontal electrodes 102 and a plurality of vertical electrodes 104. As the electrodes 102 and 104 stretch along two axes, the horizontal position and the vertical position can be sensed respectively, and the touch position can therefore be determined. In general, two different layers of conductive materials form the horizontal electrodes 102 and the vertical electrodes 104. If an insulation layer is further placed between the two electrode layers, at least three to four layers of stacking are required in the touch panel 100. The size of the touch panel is therefore hard to be smaller, and the manufacturing method may be complicated. Consequently, current manufacturers, so as to meet the trends of lightness and small size, study various types of touch panels with less layer stacking.